Newcastle’s “concrete carbuncle” has been going, going and is now almost gone after weeks of work by wrecking crews.

Teams of demolition experts from Thompsons of Prudhoe have for months been painstakingly, piece by piece, been taking apart Norwich Union House on the corner of Pudding Chare and Westgate Road, to make way for new student flats.

And now they have reached basement level, with the eyesore just days from being consigned to the realms of history and architectural nightmare.

When work is complete builders will move in to create a new VitaBrand student block on the site and the space next door which has been empty since the 13 storey 1970s landmark Westgate House was demolished in 2007.

Once upon a time the row contained three fine examples of Victorian Geordie architecture - the old Union Rooms club, Kemsley House and the Norwich Union Insurance building.

Today only The Union Rooms remains - as a JD Wetherspoon pub - with the Chronicle’s old headquarters Kemsley House vacated in 1965 when we moved to our current offices in the Groat Market, then bulldozed to make way for Westgate House, which was completely incongruous and unsympathetic to its surroundings.

The space where the Norwich Union building used to occupy opposite the Station Hotel

The old Norwich Union building is also long-gone, replaced by the faceless Norwich Union House.

But property company Centreland was last year granted permission to transform a city centre eyesore into brand new student accommodation, which will house more than 250 students, a restaurant and a bar.